


Tonight, let us rest

by LinaLuthor



Series: Stars in the night sky [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst and Tragedy, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Multi, No Happy Ending Fest, Verdant Wind route, this is not a happy fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:08:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27080947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LinaLuthor/pseuds/LinaLuthor
Summary: Enbarr has fallen to the Alliance army under Byleth's command. Upon receiving the report, Edelgard reminisces on her loss and what is to come, then buries herself in work again.She might have gone on like this until the army arrive at the palace gates, but her lovers Dorothea and Petra had better ideas and waltzed into her office instead.
Relationships: Dorothea Arnault/Edelgard von Hresvelg, Dorothea Arnault/Edelgard von Hresvelg/Petra Macneary, Dorothea Arnault/Petra Macneary, Edelgard von Hresvelg/Petra Macneary
Series: Stars in the night sky [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2085051
Comments: 8
Kudos: 20





	Tonight, let us rest

"Enbarr has fallen, your Majesty."

The report shouldn't have been a surprise at all, or at least not as strongly as it sounded right then, making Edelgard's heart shudder within her chest. She had known how capable and powerful the Alliance forces were; she could still remember some of the injuries she had sustained back in Gronder a few months ago. 

Even so, she froze anew with that revelation and everything that it implied. The summer heat that surrounded her in the office, the same one her father had locked himself in for days or weeks to run the Empire when he had been in control of things and himself, seemed to evaporate with those words alone. The gemstones which lined the table she worked at, the chair she sat on and the door which had been closed as the messenger came, lost their brilliance as her mind worked the details, wrapped itself around the loss.

The loss not only of the capital, a place that had thrived under the power and exuberance of the Empire, but of her vassal and closest friend. 

"And Hubert?" She asked, though the answer was as clear to her as it was in the eyes of the pageboy who had volunteered to watch the battle in the back of a wyvern, a child no older than thirteen with hope in his heart and dreams of being a general under Edelgard's command one day. 

To bring honor to his crestless, empoverished family, through his great work in the army. And he was sure he would, as long as the Emperor and her ideas thrived, lived to see another day.

"Minister von Vestra has… perished, your Majesty. I'm sorry," he took off his helmet, the one piece of armor in his body, and bowed his head in respect, recalling how a green-haired woman and a young mage in purple had tore through the battlefield, then brought death to Edelgard's vassal with a Hero Relic and a volley of ominous spells. 

The Emperor sighed and nodded, closed her eyes in deference for the memory of all that had been, all the years of companionship she and Hubert had shared. Her gloved hands balled into fists, almost snapping the black quilt she had been using and crumpling the document she'd been writing as well. She stopped herself in time, allowing anger and grief to run their course through her bloodstream, to make her heart beat a little faster in response. 

"How long until they are here?" Her voice was icy, scathing, making the boy in front of her back away in response. She had to know, had to get ready and issue orders. The palace wouldn't be taken as easily as the city was.

It couldn't be, or else all she had fought and sacrificed so much for would be lost as well.

"A-around one day or less, I'd say. They were tending to the wounded when I left, both their own and the people in Enbarr that got caught up in the cross-fire."

She hummed low in her throat, turned her eyes down to the piles of documents in front of her. Their sameness, the constant stream of requests and orders she had to issue gave her a sense of security, rooting her thoughts in the present instead of letting them wander through what-ifs, through outcomes that weren't at all that positive. She had to prevail, no matter the cost. She had to fight for those who couldn't, and now for the friend that was lost to her. 

"Tell the army to get ready for the assault on the palace," Edelgard began once she lifted her eyes to the messenger again, taking in his young, fierce determination. Remembering how she had once been like that too, a princess dreaming and scheming for a better world. "Tell them to rest, to sleep and eat. To get their weapons in place and speak to their loved ones. This is a battle we have to win, but it doesn't mean we cannot be human beforehand."

The boy smiled at her orders and the emotions underneath them, drawing determination from both. There was a new fire in his eyes when he curtsyed as deeply as possible and excused himself - she could hear the sound of his steps, running outside to tell the generals what would be in stock for them. Meanwhile, Edelgard sighed and shook her head, wishing she could be just as hopeful. 

Wishing her thoughts hadn't turned to the worst already, imagining a world that would go on under the firm rule of the church of Seiros and its beliefs. With the silent threat of Those Who Slither in the Dark and their hunger for power, for their existence dooming all of Fódlan. If she failed, they would try again with others, wouldn't they? And more people would suffer, more would be disregarded as unimportant due to their lack of crests, whereas crest-bearing others were forced into marriages and lives that weren't their own for the sake of… 

No, she couldn't lose the battle to come, the one in her mind. She couldn't bear to leave this world knowing she had failed and those things would go on like that, in a way that silenced so many and their pains. 

After a small huff, she forced herself to look down at the paper she should be writing and her hands to stop trembling, so she could finish that assignment and move to the next, being as efficient as she could until the time came to pick up her axe. Night would fall soon, what with how the window behind her was gradually giving less and less light and she already had to light a candle in front of her, how the myriad books that lined the shelves to her left and right were already obscured. 

No matter what time it was or what time the Alliance army came, she would keep on working. That was the only thing that would make Edelgard steer away from thoughts that were meaningless, that would make nothing change and only distract her from the task at hands. It was easier to bury herself with duty than to face her own worries and doubts, after all. 

Hours passed and she flipped sheet after sheet of paper, lighting one and then another candle for light, stretching her hands once or twice when they threatened to cramp, rolling her head around for how stiff she got in that plush chair. 

And maybe she would have kept going until an army showed up at her doorstep, Byleth's dull, emerald green eyes demanding an end to the war, to her life and her life endeavors all at once, if there hadn't been a short knock to the door.

One that was interrupted when the door was simply thrown open, before Edelgard could even ask the person to enter anyways. 

"Dorothea! We needed to be asking permis-"

"Petra darling, you know I wouldn't let something like that keep me away," Dorothea's voice sound peeved underneath its usual singsong quality, something that Edelgard had learned to catch on after all those years together. "Hey there, Edie," the woman saluted, standing in front of the table and giving the neat piles of paper on them a scathing look. 

Given how many times she had voiced her dislike for Edelgard's endless working hours, it was a miracle that there wasn't a fireball hovering over her palm in that moment. 

"I am sorry, I tried stop her but well…" Petra stood beside the former songstress with a sheepish smile. "They will be the coming, right?"

Edelgard sighed, let her pen rest on its holder and simply nodded as that issue was brought back to the front of her mind again. It had been easier to bury it under stacks and stacks of documents and petitions, than to deal with the nervousness that was preceding that particular battle, the most important one of her life. 

The one where her ideals would either go on or perish, depending on who emerged victorious. Depending on whose lives were spared or preserved.

"I'm sorry for Hubie, truly," Dorothea spoke first, anger slowly dissolving from her once she took in Edelgard's demeanor, glad the Emperor let herself be truly seen by them. That sign of trust, no matter how small, had always been cherished and seen as important by both her and Petra even back at their academy days. 

"His sacrifice will not be in vanity. Tomorrow we will win and his spirit will find peace!" Petra declared, pounding on her own chest in an attempt to lighten the mood, the gloomy atmosphere that had befallen the office after the pageboy's report. After a second and some strained giggles, she went on. "We also heard that you told people to rest."

"That I did," Edelgard answered, her eyes lost at a point between them, between the two women who had been beside her through so much already. "This has been a long war, a terrible conflict with great loss and sorrow even in the battles that were won. I want everyone to remember why we are fighting, what we are fighting for. That was why I told them to be with the ones they love."

Dorothea and Petra beamed, fingers twined together in a silent declaration of love that made Edelgard smile as well. Then gasp in surprise when they slowly approached her chair from the sides and placed their spare hands on her shoulders, squeezing it. 

"Yeah well… we'd like to follow that order too. But I don't know, our bed has seemed a little too empty as of recent, has it not, Petra?" Dorothea spoke in soft tones, brushing the Emperor's collarbone with fingertips.

"It has. We have missed you, Elle," Petra whispered, mimicked the songstress movements, both of them catching the small shudder that it elicited.

Edelgard closed her eyes and smiled, light crimson dusting her cheeks at those words, at the care and warmth behind them. She had always loved Petra's pronunciation of her nickname, the way it sounded something so different, yet so beautiful all the same. As if she could be beautiful like that, something more than a ruthless Emperor that was fighting hard to bring about a world that was worth living in.

A world where no crestless child born to a noble parent would be thrown in the streets. A world where no one from outside of Fódlan would be afraid to be there and to be themselves, subjected to loathing stares and derisive sneers, to cuss words they could barely understand. 

A world where everyone was loved and cherished, respected and admired for who they were and all they had managed to do due to their own efforts alone. 

It was easy to relax into their warm touches, to let their hands knead her shoulders and ease the tension that had gathered in them. The stress from carrying over these dreams, added to the fact that soon enough something decisive would be upon them.

However, in that moment there was only she and her two lovers, the ones she had opened up to slowly at the monastery, then almost shut down when they surprisingly followed her once the siege of Garreg Mach was over. The ones that had kissed her in Enbarr a few years later, welcoming her into their relationship after a tough battle that had almost cost their lives and explaining that it was ok for her to love them both, as they, too, loved each other and her.

Saying that she was safe, and beautiful, and loved for just being Edelgard. Not the Emperor with lands and a fortune to her name, or the woman who could yield an axe as if there was no tomorrow. 

Just Edelgard was enough, with all the scars they had kissed in tandem through countless nights, or nightmares they had soothed, worries they calmed, words they had adored. Likewise she had held and solaced them in their woes, when their own dreams became too dark and their memories too heavy to be carried alone. 

Together, the three of them had fought and covered for each other, eliminating enemies with sword, axe and magic, quick stabs, powerful strikes and shining Thunders blinding, incapacitating and destroying opponents that dared getting too close to them.

The hands that battled and killed, soaked with blood and scars, could also love and care, though.

And in that night they did so, when Dorothea wordlessly plucked the horned crown out of Edelgard's hair and Petra combed the strands out of its buns, marveling at how the unnatural silver spilled free, a lake under a full moon as her fingers weaved themselves in it. How that elicited a surprised sound from their partner, one that turned into a gentle sigh once Dorothea pried the pen out of stubborn fingers and kissed them one by one.

"Come with us, Edie," the songstress crooned, emerald eyes shining under the candlelight. 

"You are a great ruler but it is bad to not give the example to your subordinates," Petra added with a smirk, a hand still weaved in her rich hair. "You have done too much already. Tomorrow we fight, but today, let us rest."

"Wise words from the Queen of Brigid herself, don't you think? Cmoooon." Dorothea had half a mind to pull her to her feet, but knew that type of persuasion wouldn't work.

Thea wondered if they would even be able to distract the Emperor, given how her eyes were etched in dark purple instead of the soft lilac they loved so much, worry and tension clear to read underneath the cool exterior that encased it. So it was a relief when Edelgard actually nodded and rose from her chair, placed the crown over those papers she had yet to attend to and grabbed Petra's hand with a small, genuine smile.

"You… you are right," Edelgard admitted, her mind hanging on those last few words, wondering if she would ever have another chance to be only human with her lovers, with the women who had motivated her even further to make her world a reality. "Let us worry about the battle when it begins. Tonight, we rest."

They walked through the empty palace hallways hand in hand, Dorothea in the middle of the two majesties, beaming in delight at what was to come next while keeping away thoughts of the near future. They climbed stairs, giggling like the schoolgirls that more than once would defy curfew in order to spend the night in Edelgard's bed, then run back to their own quarters come morning, when things had been simpler and there wasn't a world to fight for.

When there had been no crests, no slithers, no scars to see or futures to consider. 

There were kisses under the patch of moonlight which peered over the window of their bedroom, the full moon watching the promises of love and gestures of care that the three women, the three warriors shared. The way Petra kissed Edelgard with a gentleness that one would think at odds with the strength and litheness that was behind her every move, or how Edelgard planted several soft pecks on Dorothea's lips before going for a full kiss, one hand on the songstress's chin and another caressing Petra's knuckles. 

The moon watched and sighed in contentment while the women lay down together, Petra's head on Edelgard's chest and hands on Dorothea's waist. 

The same moon would see them rise a few hours later, once a general warned them of incoming troops, and bath them in its silver beams as last kisses, parting words and loving promises were made before armor was donned, weapons were readied and magic was called forth.

However, it was the sun that witnessed most of that battle, and perhaps because of that, of its mercilessness in summer and all it had failed to perceive the night before, it wouldn't mind that the end result was in favor of the Alliance, with its shining banners in gold and yellow and grey, the silent professor that had guided her students with a light of her own five years ago. 

The same Byleth that had trained with Petra, the Brigid woman that fell to a spell from Lysithea once they got into the throne room and saw Edelgard with Petra and Dorothea in tow. The spell couldn't be diverted, not even when the Emperor told the Alliance soldiers to leave the other two alone. That their fight was with her.

The same Byleth that had almost convinced Dorothea to join the Golden Deer house, and now was forced to see her meet her end with an arrow to the heart that Edelgard couldn't parry in time. 

The same Byleth that had shared tea sleepless nights, and dark memories with Edelgard, but even so was deaf to her silent pleas until it was too late, and now at least gave her her last request, the Sword of the Creator making a clear cut in the Emperor's heart.

Unknown to Byleth at that moment, the Hero Relic had cut in the same place that some dark scientists had done so several years ago, when a young and helpless princess had been tormented and experimented with, granted another crest while losing her siblings, her world, her faith.

Once that came to light, after a letter from Hubert was found and Lysithea shared her past, wondering if the same had happened to Edelgard, it was too late. While the rest of the army celebrated their victories, the archbishop enveloped her in a hug and there was talk of festivities, Byleth bit back tears, bit back apologies and the anger that followed, the resolve to do better and to try again.

When the day was up and the sun went down in a festive mood, the moon came up in the sky again. It looked for the three women that had loved each other underneath its beams and soon it found out they were nowhere to see in the land below. 

Yet, as Brigid legends would often say, those who fiercely and truly loved under the moon often found their resting place in the sky. Once the full moon looked to its side, it saw that there were indeed three new stars beside it, so close together that observers had a tough time telling if that was one big star or three at all. 

Byleth, perceptive and tired, unable to shed her tears for what had been and what hadn't, named the three stars the Lovers as she and the Alliance army marched on to Shambhala, to the city without light. 

**Author's Note:**

> Ok ok, so that's me being angsty in this fine Sunday morning and remembering how sad it is that you have to fight Dorothea and Petra in the Enbarr palace if you don't recruit them - on top of facing Edelgard, of course. 
> 
> So my two handed brain cells were like... What if Edelgard, Petra and Dorothea were a polycule and got together one last time before the battle? And they lost it cause yeah? There you have it xD
> 
> The original idea had more details going into the battle, on how they would protect each other and so on (having them all in the throne room instead of outside of it), but the main focus of this fic is their love and not so much their death hahaha
> 
> Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
